The present invention is relates generally to network communications, and more particularly to peer-to-peer communications.
The Peripheral Component Interconnect (“PCI”) is a well established and widely deployed standard that specifies a computer bus for attaching peripheral devices to a computer motherboard. Successor standards such as PCI-X, which stands for Peripheral Component Interconnect Extended, have increased the bandwidth and addressed perceived shortcomings.
PCI Express, officially abbreviated as PCI-E or PCIe, is a serial packet-based protocol that provides higher yet transfer speeds, and addresses additional perceived shortcomings of PCI and PCI-X. PCIe infrastructure is also well established and provides a network architecture. One thing lacking is support for peer-to-peer connections between computer systems (domains).